THE GREAT ALEUTIAN CHAIN. 177 



voluntarily to English Bay, or "Anglieeski Bookhta," by which 

 designation they themselves call the harbor to-day. 



A broad expanse of this bay lies directly between us on the 

 north side and the village of Borka, which is perched on a narrow 

 beach-level shelf of an island that rises bold and abruptly, high 

 from the sea. This hamlet is the most remarkable native settle- 

 ment in all Alaska with respect to a strange and unwonted cleanli- 

 ness which is exhibited in this community of one hundred and forty 

 Aleutes, who are living here to-day in twenty-eight frame houses, bar- 

 raboras, and a chapel. What makes it still more remarkable is the 

 fact that these people are in close communication with their kindred 

 of Oonalashka, who are distant only a few hours' journey by canoe 

 and portage, and who are not especially cleanly to the slightest note- 

 worthy degree. Those people of Borka are living in the cleanest 

 and neatest of domiciles. They are living so without an exceptional 

 instance, every hut being as tidy and as orderly as its neighbor. 

 They have large windows in the small frame houses and barraboras, 

 scrub and sand the floors, and keep their simple furniture, their beds, 

 and window-panes polished and bright. Glass tumblers, earthen 

 pots, and wooden firkins filled with transplanted wild-flowers 

 stand on the tables and deep window-sills to bloom fresh and sweet 

 all the year round. A modest, unassuming old Russian Creole 

 trader, who has lived there all his life, and who was living recently, 

 is credited with this influence for the better with the natives. Cer- 

 tainly he is the only one who has ever succeeded in working such a 

 revolution in the slovenly, untidy household habits of these amia- 

 ble but shiftless people. 



As we retrace our steps to Oonalashka village we become fully im- 

 pressed with the size of this island. It bears so many mountain spurs, 

 with a singularly rugged, cut-up coast, in which the deep indentations 

 or gulf-fiords nearly sever the island in twain as they run in to al- 

 most meet from the north and south sides. Beautiful mats of wild 

 poppies are nodding their yellow heads as the gusts sweep over them 

 on the hillsides, and a rank, rich growth of tall grasses by the creek- 

 margins and the sea-shore in sheltered places shimmers and sways 

 like so many fields of uncut green grain do at home. Vegetation 

 everywhere, except on the summits of the highest peaks and ridges 

 and the mural faces of the bluffs ! Even there some tiny lichens 

 grow, however, and give rich tones of golden ochre and purplish- 

 bronzed reflections from the cold, moist rocks, whereto they cling. 

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